Hi, I have a woking, though in need of service, Crumar Performer that someone has painted all the control panel white.I was wondering if anyone has any advice on getting the paint off or if I should try to track down a replacement part.Many thanks!

Mine was dirty as h**l when I got it, but quickly noticed that the silkscreen was getting off when cleaning it with regular home products (like I do with every other synth I bring home for the first time)... I immediately stopped to clean those area, keeping working just on black parts. Be careful!

There are a lot of approaches to removing paint -mostly depends on the paint. Usually paint like you describe was not applied with any prep to speak of so it can be persuaded to lift fairly easily. You may want to consider removing the panel from the machine and all the switches etc from the panel to avoid getting liquids in them. Sometimes it will scrape off with a fingernail in warm soapy water, sometimes rubbing alcohol will remove it, Sometimes kerosene or similar 'light' petro chemicals will remove it, sometimes a little heat from a heat gun will lift it (I stress a little), 2000 grit wet sand paper could cut the majority then polish off the rest, but whatever you try, do it in gradual gentle steps and DON"T BE IN A HURRY. If it were me and simple household stuff failed, I'd go online and look for reviews of graffiti remover and buy the one that has the worst review. It will potentially take off original paint and markings, but if you get it on/off quickly and be ready to neutralize it you can get away with it. I've had varying degrees of success every time with projects like this, but it took a lot of experimenting, patience and the realization that it will never be perfect.

I played an Crumar Orchestrator (not sure how it compares to a Performer, but they are form the same era) and RS09 at the same time on some recordings and found them to be different enough and complementary for it to be worth having both -that said I now have neither! Current strings for me are VP330 and Omni2, been thinking about getting the Orchestrator back though...

If you cas handle international shipping, you might send the panel to Synthspa.com here in the USA. He makes printed vinyl sheets that press on over the sanded and primed metal. I'm having him do a Juno-60 soon, but can only state that the pictures on his website look GREAT! And MUCH cheaper that Customsynth.

many thanks for the advice. I will have a go at it myself, carefully and will try to post some pictures. If I mess up i will save up for a replacement to be made. The work of custom synths looks great, though it may be a little over the top to spend too much restoring a Crumar Performer I paid £3 for a long long time ago.I owned an RS-09 for a short while and loved it as well, but never had a chance to have the Performer and RS-09 side by side for a comparison. Maybe I'll be lucky to get one again sometime.

Both synths were never side by side in my set up (not enough space), so I can't be precise about a shoot out. But my Crumar has many broken sliders, so I don't play much with it: I wish it was something simple I could fix myself, but no. And I don't think I would pay the price for a qualified tech to do the job, since it's not worth that much to my eyes. It the defects were only cosmetic like yours, I wouldn't change anything on it! It's really just an entry level string machine, after all, and few people would bother with it if it wasn't for the Duran Duran association (yeah, I'm guilty of that)...

mine has a few broken sliders too, with their tops snapped off, but they can be worked ok with a little extra effort.It's the second synth I ever got, after an MC-202, and although its not got that much range I really like the sound. Especially alongside the six-trak.Which Duran Duran tracks did it feature on?Does anyone know if it was used on any other notable recordings, I'm guessing maybe some italian prog or soundtrack work?

hinotori wrote:mine has a few broken sliders too, with their tops snapped off, but they can be worked ok with a little extra effort.It's the second synth I ever got, after an MC-202, and although its not got that much range I really like the sound. Especially alongside the six-trak.Which Duran Duran tracks did it feature on?Does anyone know if it was used on any other notable recordings, I'm guessing maybe some italian prog or soundtrack work?

It's on almost every duran song from the first 3 albums. Most noticable on the first album of course, but on Rio and 'Tiger you can often hear it on the last chorus of each song adding some boost to the sound. Great little machine and they ARE worth something!! They can go for upto £300 on ebay UK in good condition as they don't come up very often and lots of Duran synth fans want them.

And it is most definitely part of the signature Duran sound, remove those strings from the songs and they would lose a lot of their identity even when subtly mixed in.